Press Review 23-APR-2019

News sourced until 7.15 AM Belgium.

Pricing
Pricing is taking a toll on the reputation of the pharmaceutical industry (STAT Paywall | PatientView - Survey)
The 8th edition of the 'Corporate Reputation of Pharma in 2018 - the Patient Perspective' was published by
PatientView. 41% of 2018’s respondent patient groups (RPGs) stated that the industry had an “Excellent” or “Good”
corporate reputation, compared to 43% in 2017. 53% of 2018’s RPGs believed that the pharma industry was
“Excellent” or “Good” at making high-quality products, down from 57% in 2017. Only 9% of the RPGs stated that
pharma as a whole was “Excellent” or “Good” at having fair pricing policies. They also called for more active
engagement in the whole repertoire of activities that surround corporate R&D.

WHO Fair Pricing Forum Focuses on Biosimilar Access in Middle- and Low-Income Countries (The Center for
Biosimilars)
Ed Schoonveld, the author of the book The Price of Global Health, gives an overview of the drug-pricing–related
issues discussed at the recently concluded WHO Fair Pricing Forum, with an emphasis on biosimilars. A session
devoted to biosimilars focused on biosimilar policies, solutions to supply and demand-side barriers and the slow
adoption of biosimilars. Country participants agreed on the need to educate physicians, medical staff, patients, and
payers about biosimilars and the need for a guideline on interchangeability. They also agreed on the need to
enhance the regulatory and pricing policies for biosimilars.

Intellectual Property
Generics Industry Raises Questions About WIPO-Pharma Medicines Patent Database (Health Policy Watch)
IFPMA has provided a response In response to a letter from the International Generic and Biosimilar Medicines Commented [1]: Please note that the link to IGBA's
Association (IGBA) that expressed concerns about the medicines patent database "Pat-INFORMED" developed letter does not work.
jointly by WIPO and IFPMA. IFPMA clarified that patent linkage is not created by publishing patent information but
https://www.igbamedicines.org/doc/IGBA%20Letter%2
rather by national laws. It invited any companies that hold patents, including generic manufacturers, to join the 0on%20Pat-INFORMED%20-
initiative. It said that a channel is being planned that will allow interested parties to report data inconsistencies. %20Feb%2026%202019.pdf

Global Health
Combating infectious disease epidemics through China’s Belt and Road Initiative (PLOS)
Although China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is primarily an economic initiative, it also promotes global health
security as per the Memorandum of Understanding with the WHO. The Health Silk Road concept aims to promote
cooperation among the countries in the prevention and control of communicable diseases, medical system and
policies, healthcare capacity building, staff training and exchange, and health education as well as disaster relief,
and poverty reduction for health.

Sierra Leone: 'Sierra Leone Will Rise Again in the Health Sector' (Concord)
Health Minister Alpha Tejan Wurie, on the occasion of commemorating the World Health Day, said that the country
will rise again in the health sector by rebuilding the health system based on the lessons learnt during the Ebola
outbreak. He added that the free healthcare programme will be based on strong primary health care in order to
deliver better health outcome, cost efficiency and improved quality of care, especially in the conflict-affected states.

Nigeria: Buhari Phones Bill Gate, Lauds Him for Supporting Eradication of Polio, HIV (Vanguard)
After his election victory for a second four-year term, President Muhammadu Buhari, in a telephone conversation
with Gates, lauded him for supporting the eradication of polio and HIV diseases in Africa and Nigeria in particular.
Breaking through the glass ceiling: the woman looking after the health of a billion Africans (The Telegraph)
When Matshidiso Moeti became the first woman to lead WHO’s Regional Office for Africa, the agency was taking
heat for its handling of West Africa’s Ebola outbreak. Now, with the escalating Ebola outbreak underway in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, she says putting local people at the centre of disease control efforts is key.

NCDs
Opinion: How the world can gear up for the fight against cancer (WEF)
Sarbani Chakraborty, Lead, Health Systems Capacity, Roche, prescribes how health systems, especially in LMICs, can
be prepared to tackle cancer. He says 30 to 50% of cancers can be prevented through interventions such as
eradicating tobacco use and vaccination against cervical and liver cancer and strong primary health care combined
with healthy lifestyle promotion. He called upon countries to integrate healthcare infrastructure across primary,
secondary and tertiary care for effective screening, diagnosis and treatment.

Non-communicable diseases, unequal access to healthcare are major challenges in the Health sector: VP Naidu
(Medical Dialogues)
According to M. Venkaiah Naidu, the Vice President of India, the spread of non-communicable diseases, unequal
access to healthcare and rising costs were the major challenges in the healthcare sector. He wanted the urban-rural
gap in providing modern healthcare facilities to be bridged and urged the private sector to supplement the efforts
of the governments in catering to the rural population.

UHC
Universal health care in 21st century Americas (Lancet | PAHO report)
The report of the PAHO Commission on Universal Health in the 21st Century emphasised that achieving UHC in the
Americas will only be possible by ensuring effective financing, enshrining the right to health for all in legal and
regulatory frameworks, and pursuing models of care based on primary health care. In response to the Commission,
Mexico's President López Obrador announced changes to the Mexican Constitution to incorporate the right to
health.

Zambia commits to strengthening Primary Health Care as a vehicle for advancing Universal Health Coverage (WHO
Zambia)
Zambia commemorated the World Health Day under the global theme of UHC, with a focus on Primary Health Care
as a means for advancing progress on achieving the 2030 SDG target on UHC. The Ministry of Health, in collaboration
with the WHO Country Office and the European Union, convened a partners and stakeholder’s forum to highlight
progress made in moving towards UHC and identify gaps that needed to be addressed.

Monitoring Frameworks for Universal Health Coverage: What About High-Income Countries? (IJHPM)
Implementing UHC is perceived to be central to achieving the SDGs. This study finds that these frameworks are
irrelevant in high-income contexts and that the international community needs to develop a UHC monitoring
framework meaningful for high-income countries. It also offers considerations to guide meaningful UHC monitoring
and reflects on pertinent challenges and tensions to inform future research on UHC implementation in HIC settings.

AMR
Opinion: We ignore the disaster in the antibiotics market at our peril (FT Paywall)
Jeremy Farrar, Director of the Wellcome Trust, says that decades of disinvestment have left the few biotech
companies that are active in antibiotic development at the verge of closure, as there is no viable route to market for
new antibiotics despite the value they bring to the society. Ferrar calls for creative financing models to stabilise the
antibiotics market and stimulate private sector innovation without exposing public funders to all the risk.

New metric aims to simplify how global resistance is measured (CIDRAP | EurekaAlert | BMJ - Study)
Researchers from the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP) calculated the Drug Resistance Index
(DRI), which combines measurements of antibiotic consumption and resistance into a single number, across several
disease-causing pathogens for 41 countries. The authors said that the DRI method will help policymakers to measure
and communicate variations in antibiotic resistance similar to a stock market index.

Superbugs linked to eight out of 10 deaths in Bangladeshi ICUs (The Telegraph)

According to Dr Sayedur Rahman, a doctor in the ICU at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, AMR
superbugs could be responsible for 80% of deaths in Bangladesh's ICUs. He added that Bangladesh, India and Pakistan
are seen as drivers of AMR because of poor adherence to antibiotic treatment, the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics,
self-medication and illegal over-the-counter access to antibiotics.

Access
EU Health Ministers Meet To Discuss Access To Medicines And Treatment (Health Policy Watch | Europa PDF Press
Release)
The Romanian Health Ministry organised the Informal Meeting of EU Health Ministers to discuss ways to ensure
access to medicines and treatment, especially for youth or those with rare diseases. For innovative and expensive
medicines, they discussed possibilities for the time period between the granting of the marketing authorisation, the
actual placement on the market and the decision to reimburse the product in that Member State.

Counterfeit Medicines
China Proposes Larger Penalties on Counterfeit Vaccine Makers (Bloomberg)
According to the 2nd draft of a new vaccine management law published by China, manufacturers who are found
guilty of making or selling counterfeit vaccines can be fined 15 to 30 times the value of the products involved. Drug
companies will also bear larger legal responsibilities for operating without the necessary permits or certificates or
maintaining relevant data records. The draft also includes provisions to encourage R&D and innovation of vaccines.

Vaccines
A pivotal test of malaria vaccine is set to begin. Can it live up to its promise? (STAT)
The WHO and partners have designed a beta rollout of GSK's experimental malaria vaccine called RTS,S. Malawi is
expected to start using the vaccine in its routine immunization programmes for children from 23rd April, while it
will be extended to Ghana and Kenya later. Gavi, the Global Fund and Unitaid are jointly funding the first phases of
the pilot implementation. Notably RTS, S is the first vaccine to protect against a parasite.

DNDi: “Bench-To-Bedside” Approach Needed For Drug & Vaccine Response To Global Health Crises (Health Policy
Watch)
In a seminar on “Policies and Practices for Effective Response to Global Health Crises,” Michelle Childs of the Drugs
for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) said that global health policymakers need to adopt a “bench-to-bedside”
approach to research and development, to ensure that new drugs and vaccines are not only put into the
development pipeline but are also readily available for responding to global health crises. According to Marion
Dietterich, director of WIPO’s Global Challenges Division, there was widespread agreement that innovation in health
emergencies takes many forms, including lab-based innovation, operational innovation, and social innovation.
‘Vaccines are safe’ and save lives, UNICEF declares, launching new #VaccinesWork campaign (UNICEF)
To inspire confidence in the power and safety of vaccines, UNICEF is using the hashtag #VaccinesWork for the global
campaign, centred around World Immunisation Week, which runs from 24 to 30 April. This is part of UNICEF's new
social media campaign, emphasising that “vaccines are safe, and they save lives”, in the wake of a surge in outbreaks
of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles.

Q&A: Why The Last Mile In Polio Eradication Is So Important (GPEI)

Michael K. McGovern, Chair of the International PolioPlus Committee, explained the challenges in eradicating polio
from the endemic countries and the need to provide other services to citizens so as to garner the acceptance of
polio vaccine by parents for their children. He said that the logistics of immunisation is difficult in areas of armed
conflict, as the GPEI has to negotiate not only with the governments but also with the anti-government elements.

WHO-supported vaccination campaign to immunise 2.8 million children against vaccine-preventable diseases
(EMRO)
WHO in cooperation with the Syrian Ministry of Health and UNICEF, conducts a series of national immunisation days
to immunise children under the age of 5 against vaccine-preventable diseases, including tuberculosis, pertussis,
diphtheria, polio, tetanus, hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenza, measles, mumps and rubella. The campaign aims to
vaccinate 2.8 million children under the age of 5 in Syria.

World Immunization Week 2019: Challenges in Achieving Total Immunisation In India (News18)
India has established itself as a Polio-free country in March 2014. However, there have been several cases have
reported the issues of type-2 poliovirus detection in oral vaccine samples at immunisation camps in four states
recently. Challenges in India to attain absolute immunisation are little awareness about immunisation and taboos-
myths surrounding immunisation programmes.

NTDs
'The harder you look the more you find': Nepal's hidden leprosy (The Guardian)
Nepal’s government reported that the country had reached targets to eliminate leprosy as a public health problem.
But critics say such claims led to the defunding of leprosy research and caused health departments to wind down
services to spot patients. Research suggests that leprosy post-exposure prophylaxis treatment is 50% effective in
preventing the disease. But its success depends on health departments funding and specialist workers to track
families.

Resources
Lack of Access To Antibiotics Is A Major Global Health Challenge (CDDEP)
Antibiotic resistance is an emerging global public health threat spurred by the overuse and misuse of antibiotics. In
a new report by researchers at the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP), key access barriers to
antibiotics in low, middle, and high-income countries are analysed. The barriers include weak drug discovery,
difficulties in market entry, and poor stewardship leading to irrational selection and use of antibiotics. Insufficient
health funding by governments leading to poor affordability of antibiotics, weak health systems, unreliable supply
chains, and poor-quality control are also areas of concern, especially in LMICs. The report looks into potential
solutions to tackle these barriers.

Opinion: Life-course vaccination can protect adults from infectious disease (IFPMA| IFPMA PDF)
Lois Privor-Dumm, Director of policy, advocacy, and communications for the International Vaccine Access Centre,
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, argues that countries around the world should consider the
concept of life-course vaccination to reduce premature death and disability and support reduced healthcare costs
while enabling older adults to live longer and more productive lives. Common barriers to adult vaccination include
funding, competing for health priorities, the lack of broad-evidence and comprehensive global policy to deliver
vaccines to adults.

Events
23-30 April 2019 | Worldwide
World Immunization Week (WHO)
World Immunization Week – celebrated in the last week of April – aims to promote the use of vaccines to protect
people of all ages against disease. The theme this year is ‘Protected Together: Vaccines Work!’, and the campaign
will celebrate Vaccine Heroes from around the world – from parents and community members to health workers and
innovators – who help ensure we are all protected through the power of vaccines.

25 April 2019 | Worldwide

World Malaria Day (Roll Back Malaria)
The World Malaria Day is annually celebrated on April 25, with this year’s theme being ‘Zero Malaria Starts with Me’.
Paris, France, was named the official host city.

29 April 2019 | New York City, US

UNGA Multi-stakeholder Hearing for High-level Meeting on UHC (UHC2030)
An interactive, multi-stakeholder hearing on universal health coverage (UHC) will convene on 29 April, in preparation
for the UN General Assembly's (UNGA) High-level Meeting on UHC. The High-level meeting will take place on 23
September 2019.